‘Yes, it is,’ answered Amy, glancing across at Bonnie, who was sitting on her bed, bending over to tie her shoelaces, apparently unconcerned, but inwardly hoping that her generous gesture would mend the rift between herself and Amy. And it seemed that it had done the trick, for Amy walked across to Bonnie and, a little awkwardly, said, ‘Thank you, Bonnie. That was very kind and thoughtful of you.’
Bonnie looked up and said, ‘I’m glad you like it.’
‘I like it very much,’ said Amy. ‘You must have worked like a Trojan to get it finished in time for my birthday. I shall wear it today.’
Immensely gratified, Bonnie smiled. Then she became serious again and said, ‘Amy, please can we be friends again? I’ve missed you so much and I promise that I’ll be a true friend to you from now on.’
And Amy, who was becoming a little tired of Veronica’s company, and missed having someone to chat to about hair-dos and clothes, agreed. Of course, Veronica was not at all pleased that the two girls had made up their quarrel, for she had enjoyed having Amy to herself and now it seemed that she would have to vie with Bonnie for her attention again.
Amy’s parents came to collect her at lunchtime and, as the girl got ready to go down and greet them, Felicity said to her, ‘I do hope that all goes well for you, Amy, and that your father isn’t too angry and upset with your mother. We shall be thinking of you.’
And the third formers did think of her, often, that day, for although Amy hadn’t done much to endear herself to them, they were good-hearted girls and wished her well.
But Felicity had problems of her own to think about, for her belongings were still going missing, and she and her friends were no nearer to finding out who the culprit was. Only yesterday, she had discovered her hairbrush had gone, and she had to borrow Susan’s. Really, she thought, it was stealing, but the things the thief was taking were items that were of no value at all. What good was one shoelace, or a script for a play?
Only this morning she had said to Susan, ‘I don’t understand. Why doesn’t she help herself to my purse, or the watch that my parents gave me for my birthday?’
‘I think I understand,’ said Susan, who had been giving the matter a lot of thought. ‘Whoever it is doesn’t want these things for herself, she’s taking them to annoy you.’
‘Well, she’s certainly succeeding!’ said Felicity. ‘But she’s going to have to stop soon or I shall have nothing left for her to take!’
Well, there was no point sitting around brooding about it, she decided now. Amanda was holding a lacrosse practice shortly, so she might as well go along to that. Susan had mentioned that she would like to go as well, so Felicity sped off to find her. Susan wasn’t in the common-room, so Felicity went up to the dormitory to see if she was there. But as she approached, Felicity heard the sound of raised, angry voices coming from inside. Cautiously, she pushed open the door, and frowned as she realised that the two girls who were rowing were Susan and Veronica! Veronica looked upset and tearful, while Susan was obviously very angry indeed. And on the floor between them was the photograph of herself, Darrell and their parents that Felicity kept on her cabinet, its glass shattered.
‘My photograph!’ she gasped. ‘What happened?’
‘You had better ask dear Veronica,’ said Susan in a hard voice. ‘She can probably tell you where your missing things are as well.’
‘No!’ cried Veronica. ‘I bumped into your cabinet, Felicity, and the photograph fell off and smashed. Susan came in and saw me bending over it, and jumped to conclusions.’
‘But what were you doing near my cabinet anyway?’ asked Felicity suspiciously. ‘Your bed is at the other end of the room, so you had no reason to be over here at all.’
‘I – I was looking out of the window,’ stammered Veronica.
‘What a lame excuse!’ said Susan scornfully. ‘We might be more inclined to believe you, Veronica, if we didn’t know that you had done this kind of thing before.’
Veronica turned white and Susan went on, ‘We know that you played mean tricks on Katherine, when both of you were in the second form. And now you’re doing exactly the same to Felicity.’
‘I admit that I was mean to Katherine,’ said Veronica with a sob. ‘And the rest of the form never forgave me, no matter how hard I tried to show that I was sorry. In the end I decided it wasn’t worth being nice to them, and turned into the sly, sneaky creature they had already decided I was. But I haven’t played tricks on Felicity!’
‘I don’t believe you,’ said Susan, a disgusted expression on her face. ‘You were caught out and now you’re trying to talk your way out of it. Why can’t you have the decency to own up and give Felicity her things back?’
‘Because I don’t have them!’ yelled Veronica, tears running down her cheeks now. ‘Felicity, you must believe me.’
‘Veronica, I need to think about all this,’ said Felicity, hardly able to look at the girl. She felt quite certain that Veronica was guilty, but at the same time she couldn’t help feeling a little sorry for the girl.
‘Come on, Susan,’ she said at last. ‘We’ll be late for lacrosse practice if we don’t hurry.’
Not that Felicity’s mind was on lacrosse at all. She was quite unable to concentrate and didn’t play up to her usual standard at all, which earned her a few sharp words from Amanda.
‘Never mind, old thing,’ said Susan, as they made their way to the changing-room afterwards.
‘But I do mind!’ said Felicity crossly. ‘Blow Veronica! Not only has she been plaguing me with these spiteful tricks, but she’s probably ruined my chances of getting into one of the teams this term as well!’
‘Are you going to go to the Head about her?’ asked Susan.
‘I don’t know,’ sighed Felicity. ‘As this is the second time she’s done something like this, Miss Grayling will probably come down pretty hard on her. She might even expel her!’
‘Well, it’s quite her own fault,’ said Susan unsympathetically. ‘She simply can’t go around behaving like that and expect to get away with it.’
‘I’ll sleep on it, and decide whether or not to report her to the Head tomorrow,’ decided Felicity. ‘And I suppose we’d better let the others know that we’ve solved the mystery.’
Veronica didn’t put in an appearance at teatime, and Mam’zelle Dupont frowned when she saw the two empty places at the table.
‘Who is missing?’ she asked. ‘Ah yes, Amy is out with her parents, is she not? But where is Veronica?’
‘I don’t think she was feeling very well, Mam’zelle,’ said Felicity uncomfortably, feeling that someone ought to make an excuse for Veronica’s absence in case the French mistress decided to make enquiries.
‘Ah, la pauvre!’ said Mam’zelle sympathetically. ‘If she feels no better tomorrow, she must go to Matron and have some medicine.’
‘I don’t think Matron has any medicine that will cure a guilty conscience,’ muttered Susan under her breath to Felicity. ‘This proves that she’s the one who was playing tricks on you, for she’s afraid to come and face us.’
‘What are you talking about?’ asked Pam, who was on Susan’s other side and had overheard some of this.
‘We’ll tell you later,’ said Felicity in a low voice, leaning across. ‘You, Nora and Julie come to the little music-room after tea. I don’t want old Mam’zelle listening in.’
So, as soon as tea was over, the five girls rushed off to the music-room, and there was an outcry when Pam, Nora and Julie heard that it was Veronica who had been behind Felicity’s troubles.
‘The mean beast!’
‘I knew it was her! A leopard never changes its spots.’
‘And to think that she didn’t even have the courage to own up when she was caught in the act!’
‘My word, won’t I tell her what I think of her when I see her!’ said Julie angrily.
But Felicity said, ‘Please don’t say anything to her tonight, Julie. I need to think about whether I’m going to tell
the Head or not. Besides, I should think that Amy has had quite a trying day, and I don’t want her walking into a bad atmosphere when she comes back.’
‘It’s jolly decent of you to feel like that and to put Amy first,’ said Pam warmly. ‘But I suppose that’s what makes you such a good head-girl.’
Felicity turned quite pink with pleasure and said, ‘Do you really think that I’m a good head-girl?’
‘I think you’re first class,’ said Pam firmly. ‘You always consider other people’s feelings, you’re kind and helpful – and you’re not domineering.’
‘Hear, hear!’ chorused the others.
‘Thank you!’ laughed Felicity, feeling very pleased indeed. ‘Now we’d better go to the common-room, before the others send out a search party.’
‘I wonder if Veronica will be there,’ said Nora. ‘Don’t worry, Felicity, I shan’t say anything to her, or to the others – yet.’
Veronica was in the common-room, looking very pale and red-eyed – and so was Amy. She was telling Bonnie and Veronica about her day, and the others gathered round to listen.
‘Mummy didn’t even attempt to make any excuses for herself, once she knew that I had met Grandmother,’ Amy was saying. ‘She said that she had intended to tell Daddy the truth once they were married, but that somehow the longer she put it off the harder it got.’
‘Well, I can sort of understand that,’ said Freddie. ‘Was your father simply furious?’
‘He was, rather,’ said Amy, with a grimace. ‘And terribly hurt that Mummy thought he wouldn’t want to marry her simply because her parents hadn’t been wealthy. He had come round a bit by the time I said goodbye to them though. He simply adores Mummy, you see, and he can never stay cross with her for very long. And meeting Grandmother helped. We went there after lunch, and she and Daddy are firm friends now.’
‘That is good news!’ said Felicity, happily. ‘But how did you explain your father’s rather sudden change of heart?’
‘Well, we couldn’t tell her the truth, of course, for it would have hurt her too much,’ said Amy. ‘So we just said that Mummy and I had talked him round and he realised how foolish and snobbish he had been. Poor Daddy had to apologise to Grandmother and, I must say, he did it very convincingly. I never realised that he was such a good actor! And the best thing of all is that Daddy is going to find Grandmother a little house near ours, so I shall be able to see her in the holidays.’
‘That must have been the best birthday present of all!’ cried Susan, marvelling at how happy Amy looked.
‘Yes, it was,’ agreed Amy. ‘Oh, and Grandmother baked me the most enormous birthday cake, to bring back to school with me. We’ll all share it at teatime tomorrow.’
The third formers rubbed their hands together at this, and there were cries of ‘Jolly decent of you, Amy!’
Then Freddie, who had been looking rather wistful, sighed and said, ‘I shall miss Mrs Dale awfully. I do think you’re lucky to have her as a gran, Amy.’
‘Well, she’ll be here until the end of term,’ said Amy. ‘And I know that she’d like you to visit her again before she leaves, Freddie.’
That cheered Freddie up, and it was a happy bunch of third formers who trooped up to bed a little later. Apart from two of them. Felicity had been surreptitiously watching Veronica while they were in the common-room, and the girl had looked thoroughly miserable, lost in her own thoughts and hardly uttering a word. And Felicity herself, of course, was deeply troubled, as she knew that she would soon have to make a decision about whether or not to report Veronica to the Head. If only it was clear cut, but when the girl had been talking of her troubles with Katherine earlier, and of how her form had snubbed her efforts to make amends, Felicity had caught a glimpse of that humbler, softer Veronica that she had seen at halfterm. The decision that Felicity made would affect Veronica’s whole future, and the girl felt the responsibility weighing heavily on her slim shoulders.
At last Felicity fell asleep, and when she awoke her mind was clear. If Veronica went unpunished, and thought that she had got away with her mean tricks, it could lead her into far more serious trouble.
She signalled to Susan, Pam, Julie and Nora to stay behind in the dormitory as the others went down to breakfast, and told them of her decision.
‘I really do think that you have made the right decision, Felicity,’ said Susan. ‘And I only hope that Veronica learns something from all this. When are you going to see Miss Grayling?’
‘I’ll go right after breakfast,’ said Felicity. ‘It’s not going to be pleasant, and I’d rather get it over with as soon as possible.’
‘I know that Veronica’s behaviour has been despicable,’ said Pam, with a frown. ‘But I hope that Miss Grayling doesn’t expel her.’
Suddenly a little squeal sounded from behind the group of girls and they all turned sharply, to see Bonnie standing there, a startled look on her face.
‘Bonnie!’ cried Felicity. ‘I thought that you had gone to breakfast.’
‘I was in the bathroom,’ said Bonnie, an odd expression on her face. ‘Pam, why should Miss Grayling expel Veronica?’
Pam exchanged a look with Felicity, who nodded and said, ‘There’s no reason why you shouldn’t tell Bonnie the truth. Everyone will know soon enough.’
‘Well, Bonnie, we found out that Veronica was responsible for Felicity’s things going missing,’ Pam told the girl. ‘Not only that, but she smashed her photograph.’
Bonnie said nothing, but just stood there looking absolutely stunned, and the girls, knowing that she was no friend of Veronica’s, wondered why.
‘I say, Bonnie, do you feel all right?’ asked Julie.
‘Yes, but I need to speak to Felicity privately,’ said Bonnie, twisting her hands together agitatedly. ‘Would the rest of you mind awfully leaving us alone?’
So, bursting with curiosity, the others went off to breakfast, while Felicity wondered what on earth Bonnie wanted. The girl hadn’t spoken to her at all lately, unless she absolutely had to, so whatever she had to say must be extremely important.
Veronica gets a chance
‘What is it, Bonnie?’ asked Felicity, who was hungry and didn’t want to get into trouble for being late in to breakfast.
Bonnie didn’t answer. Instead, she went to the little cabinet beside her bed and pulled out a cardboard box, which she passed to Felicity.
‘Take a look inside,’ she said.
Felicity removed the lid – and gave a gasp. For there inside were her missing belongings. Her pen, the script of the play, a shoelace – and all the other things that she had mislaid recently.
‘But I don’t understand!’ exclaimed Felicity, looking perplexed. ‘How did they come to be in your cabinet, Bonnie? Did Veronica ask you to hide them for her?’
This seemed most unlikely, given that Bonnie and Veronica were hardly the best of friends, but Felicity could think of no other explanation.
‘Of course not,’ said Bonnie, gazing doe-eyed at Felicity. ‘Veronica didn’t take your things. It was me.’
‘You?’ said Felicity, sitting down plump upon her bed, so great was her astonishment. ‘But – but why, Bonnie?’
‘To pay you back for being mean to me, of course,’ answered Bonnie simply, as though it was the most normal thing in the world for her to have played spiteful tricks on Felicity. ‘You see, I thought you were my friend. And then, when I found out that you weren’t, I was terribly angry. But, of course, I quite see that I couldn’t let Veronica take the blame and possibly be expelled, much as I dislike her.’
Felicity was quite speechless for a moment, taken aback as much by Bonnie’s matter-of-fact honesty as by the realisation that she was the person who had been playing pranks on her. At last she found her voice and said, ‘Yes, it would have been very wrong of you to let Veronica take the blame. But, Bonnie, didn’t it also occur to you that it was wrong to take my things in the first place? Why, it’s stealing!’
‘Of course it isn
’t!’ said Bonnie. ‘I never meant to keep your stuff. Why, what on earth would I want with an odd shoelace and a copy of a script that I already have? I always intended to give you your things back at the end of term. And I couldn’t think of another way of getting back at you.’
Bonnie, thought Felicity, had a way of explaining the most extraordinary things so that they seemed quite ordinary! She tried once more to impress upon the girl that she had done wrong, saying, ‘But you must have known that I was annoyed and upset about my things going missing?’
‘Yes, I did,’ said Bonnie, nodding her pretty head. ‘But that was the whole point. I mean to say, what’s the good of playing those kind of tricks on someone if it doesn’t bother them?’
‘Yes, but Bonnie, the thing is that you shouldn’t have played those tricks on me at all,’ said Felicity earnestly. ‘I understand that you felt hurt, but that isn’t the way that we deal with things at Malory Towers.’
‘Really? Very well then, I shan’t do it again,’ said Bonnie blithely. ‘Oh dear, Felicity, do look at the time! We shall get into a dreadful row if we go down to breakfast now. Not that I’m very hungry, are you?’
‘Not any more,’ answered Felicity, sighing. ‘Bonnie, you do realise that I’m going to have to tell Susan and the others about this, don’t you? Not to mention Veronica herself.’
‘Must you?’ said Bonnie, pouting a little. ‘I was rather hoping that we could keep it just between the two of us.’
‘Well, we can’t,’ said Felicity firmly. ‘The others have a terrific down on Veronica because they think that she was behind all those tricks on me, and I must set them straight. And as for Veronica herself – my goodness, it must be simply dreadful to be wrongly accused of something when you know that you are innocent! I must tell her as soon as possible that her name has been cleared.’